Robotic car race gains traction among students

The excitement was electric at this year's Robot Car Race Day, when engineering students from the University of Pretoria gathered on campus to see which of their inventions would reach the finish line first.

The students were tasked with designing and building an autonomous, line-following robot that "reads" a track with a light sensor.

While some worked in groups, this year's winner, 21-year-old Petri Oosthuizen, went solo. "I started the first week of the semester. I thought doing it alone would be a challenge," he said.

Besides finishing in first place, Oosthuizen also received the Lone Ranger prize for the fastest solo entry and the prize for the car that most accurately followed the lines.

Oosthuizen won in a time of 11.29 seconds, which, according to the brain behind the event, Professor Tania Hanekom, was one of the fastest times on the track since the competition started in 2013.

The key to his success? "Large wheels, a lot of grip on the wheels and 'mindsensors' - phototransistors under the car to detect colour. The more sensors you have, the higher the resolution is so you can have more intelligent choices on where the car should navigate to," said Oosthuizen.

The annual race day, now in its fifth year, was launched when Hanekom realised that her students dreaded their third-year microcontrollers module.

"Students really struggled and hated it, and you can't teach students when they hate something," she said.

To change students' attitudes, she decided to take engineering out of the lab and into the real world. The competition has proven to be a huge success.

"It's been fantastic. It changed the attitude and perception to the module instantly," she said.

This year the event had 13 sponsors and prizes worth R45,000.

"We never intended for it to become such a big event. It has exploded to where it is today," she said.